Clattenburg and Cahill Spark Everton

When I trudged out of Goodison after the Merseyside derby defeat to our bitter rivals (I won't mention them by name) on October 20th, I would have been likely to throw a punch at someone who told me I'd end up almost being thankful to Clattenburg for sparking off Everton's best run of the season.

The perceived sense of injustice seems to have galvanised the manager, the fans, and the team. Nine games unbeaten in all competitions and counting now.

In addition to that, the return of our Australian goal machine has added an extra dimension to our play. Tim Cahill's goal return has been phenomenal throughout his time with the club.

Cahill's presence gives us much greater flexibility in terms of the formation we can play. He's the type of player that just seems to have the happy knack of arriving in the penalty box at the right time, again and again, to score important goals—a la Paul Scholes, or, going back a few years earlier, David Platt.

Cahill's performances for Australia in last summer's World Cup further cemented his reputation as one of the best goalscoring midfielders in football today.

Given our past history—winning the league title before both World War I and World War II broke out, and banned from European competition after another league title victory in 1985 amongst other things, Evertonians are natural pessimists. This season however has seen a wave of optimism come over the club.

Since David Moyes took over in the dark days on 2002, we now have arguably the best squad of players since our great side of the 1980's. Young, talented, and full of pace, it bodes well for not only this season, but the future of the club as well.

In Mikel Arteta, Everton has a player with the mercurial skills to cause trouble to any side. We've also got a pacy defence, which includes Nigeria's captain Joseph Yobo and the magnificent Joleon Lescott, who was unfairly criticised by the English tabloid press for his part in England's calamitous Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.

Everton's midfield nicely combines the artists and the artisans. Up front, it's pick any one of five from Johnson, Yakubu, the enigma that is James McFadden, and our young striking stars Anichebe and Vaughan.

All in all things are looking up for Everton. Long may it continue...